The Storyteller: Greek Myths (1990) s01e02 Episode Script

Perseus & the Gorgon

What is that?
A thing of darkness.
A night fear.
Don't even look at it.
The face. It's horrible.
Where does it come from?
A long way away,
on a rock at the edge of the world
lived a woman
with terrible claws, wings of bronze
and breath as foul as corpses.
Her hair was a nest of poisonous snakes
hissing, alive.
Catch her stare,
and she could turn you to stone.
Her name was Medusa, the gorgon.
Imagine her looking away.
And then starting to turn towards you.
Slowly, slowly.
Shall we turn and look at them, sisters?
And the boy sent to kill her came out of
the same shadows that spawned her.
And his birth was first foretold in a cave
as dark as this place.
His name was Perseus.
Acrisius, king of Argos,
had a daughter, Danae.
Now he longed for a son.
What if his wife
should give him another daughter?
What if he gave rise to a line of daughters
stretching out forever?
Women who would carry off
his name and lineage to strangers.
This ache for a boy child,
an heir, gripped his heart
and he made sacrifice
after sacrifice to the gods
creators of earth and sky
and moon, until finally
desperate, he sought out the oracle.
-Who's there?
-Acrisius. King of Argos.
What does the king wish to know?
There's a shame in asking what's to come.
And the King of Argos
knelt in the darkness with a dry mouth
his heart tapping
like the wind at the temple door.
I want a son.
A son? There will be a boy.
The king's heart lurched in the darkness.
A son!
But not your son, Acrisius, King of Argos.
Your daughter's son.
Danae will have a boy,
and you shall hear his laughter.
And this boy, one day, he'll kill you.
He'll kill you.
What?
He'll kill you.
Lights! Do you hear me? Lights!
Father? Father?
Nothing now for both of us.
No sons, no laughter, no joy.
Nothing but silences and funerals
and things that might have been.
Father?
Poor girl.
Yes. Terrible.
Shut forever in a chamber of solid bronze
from which there could be no escape.
Nothing now
but the dark and silence and the trickle
of sunlight in a corner of the cell.
Danae found all her hope
in that finger of light
looked at it, week after week
month after month, ear after ear.
Until one day
as she gave herself up to the light
it turned to gold.
Real gold!
Streaming into her lap as she la there.
What was it?
It was Zeus, lord of all gods.
What was he doing?
Fulfilling the oracle.
So that's how it's done.
No! A baby! How awful!
Was it a boy? Did it kill its grandfather?
Did it have a poisoned rattle or something?
It was a boy. Perseus.
Born in darkness and secret.
A bo whose fate awaited him
at the end of the world
on a sea-lashed rock.
I smell a man, born of a god.
Sisters, smell the air.
Stare him out, sisters.
Give him the sad eye.
Years passed
and all Perseus knew was the room
the sweet touch of his mother,
and her stories.
And the quiet unraveling of day after day.
What's the world like?
Not like this.
What's this then?
A prison.
I thought it was the world.
When Perseus was six years old
Danae made for him a sword
from wood pulled from her bed
and smoothed on the stone floor.
When she placed it in his hands,
the little boy just stood there
his pale eyes troubled.
You fight with it.
You fight monsters with it.
A long way away,
on a rock at the edge of the world
lives a woman with terrible claws
wings of bronze,
and breath as foul as corpses.
Her hair is a nest of poisonous snakes
alive
and hissing!
Catch her eyes
and she'll turn you to stone.
And this pale, bloodless noise
caught in the still passages
echoed, crept into
the ear of the sad king
chilled him, pulled him from his chamber
pulled him down corridors
where laughter had long died
where joy had perished,
pulled him down and down
into the bowels of his palace.
Don't kill him! Please!
Please don't kill my boy!
Take this chest and shut in it
my daughter and her son.
Cast it from the highest cliff
into the ocean
and let the seas mash them,
and the rocks grind them.
Perseus could feel the chest lifted,
hear the clash of heel on stone
and then the drag, the lurch,
as the chest was carried off
where they knew not
and then cold, sharp salt air
seeping into the wood.
He clung in silence to his silent mother.
He must have been frightened.
Imagine! Suddenly a heave
and then the world dropping
from the pit of your stomach
the fall, the forever fall, the plunge,
turning over and over
clinging together.
And then the smash of wood on water
and the wetness forcing in.
That's terrible!
They just drowned?
They should have drowned.
They dreamed they drowned.
But then they woke
and they were still there,
still locked in the dark
but now the dark moved them
from side to side.
-Rocked them.
-They floated!
They floated.
Pulled by currents, tugged by tides.
How long this lasted, who knows?
There were no das or nights,
only drifting
drifting in and out of sleep, on and on.
Until, from nowhere
out of nothing, suddenly there was light!
Light! More light
than Perseus had ever known.
And into the light, a face.
And it was smiling.
Look what the sea brought us! Look!
What are you thinking, son?
When I was small, we lived in a prison.
I remember the prison.
There was a narrow window.
It was always quiet.
Sometimes I miss the darkness.
I miss the shadows and the silence.
My house is full of shadows.
Come and live with me.
Is this your son?
He is my son.
His name is Perseus.
And where's his father?
Diktys? Is this your son?
He has no father.
A boy needs a father.
How would you like me to be your father?
How would you like to live
in a palace full of shadows?
It could be easily done.
All I would have to do
is take your mother for my wife.
Leave my mother alone!
Who are you?
His name is Polydektes.
King of all of this island
stealer of farms, liar.
Gatherer in of beautiful things.
And if I choose,
I will take your mother for my wife.
I will marry her in six days.
Come to the wedding
if you can afford a bride-gift.
Is that a treasure chest, Perseus?
Bring your weight in gold coins, Perseus.
Bring your oak chest full of gold pieces.
I have no gold. The chest is empty.
Dear.
What is to be done?
A long way away
on a rock at the edge
of the world lives a woman
whose hair is a nest of poisonous snakes.
Catch her eye and she'll turn you to stone.
I'll bring you something better than gold.
I'll bring you the head of the gorgon.
Really? The head of the gorgon?
Marvellous.
What a marvellous wedding gift.
I shall. I shall bring you Medusa
and there will be no wedding.
Somebody called my name!
Sisters, we must keep watch.
Look to the east!
And so it was that Perseus,
half-child, half-god
found himself with
five days and five nights
to bring back the severed head
of the gorgon
fringed with snakes, the gaze that froze
to prevent the marriage of his mother
to the tyrant, Polydektes,
Lord of Seriphos.
I don't know who I hate more,
this Polydektes, or the gorgon.
Poor Danae, did she have to marry him?
Poor Perseus.
Poor Perseus.
How could he bring back the head
of the gorgon to Polydektes' table?
Did such a monster really exist?
Where was this island
at the edge of the world
beyond ocean, beyond nights,
beyond the north wind?
He wasted one whole day by the seashore
stared into the red night.
So what happened?
The gods helped him.
Remember, he was Zeus' son.
Athene the daughter of Zeus,
Hermes the messenger
they found him. They gave him this sword
a real sword, and a bright bronze shield.
-And Athene--
-She was his sister, then?
She was his half-sister.
Warned him never to look
directly at the gorgon
but to catch her stare
in the reflection of the shield.
Go to the Graeae,
she told him, sisters of the gorgon.
The will know where to find her.
And at length, Perseus found the Graeae
three hags who had but one tooth
and one eye between them.
The gorgon's sisters.
Zeus, father of the gods,
lord of the storm
cloud gatherer, give me a six!
Give her a two!
Give her nothing, Zeus!
Who's there?
A traveller. And I hold the eye!
Give it to me!
Not until you tell me
where I may find the gorgon.
Give me the eye! I'll tell you. Me!
The Graeae screeched
and spat and clawed to betray their sister.
But Perseus would not give up the eye
until he knew everything.
I'll tell you everything. Give it to me.
I'll tell you everything. Anything!
Go to the nymphs of the Styx.
They have the cap of invisibility,
the winged sandals to carry you.
I know where they are!
Here's your eye! Betrayers.
I have it! I have it!
Go, stranger, go to the nymphs
take every weapon, make yourself invisible.
It will not help you.
My sister will freeze
the breath in your throat!
He's coming, sister! He's coming!
He is coming, my sisters.
I smell him on the breeze.
He is coming to me!
Is this it? The cap of invisibility. Nice.
It's dog skin.
I don't believe you!
That cap is dog skin?
That's disgusting.
-It is.
-Yuck!
Three things he had
from the Stygian Nymphs
as beautiful in their black lake
as the Graeae were foul
the kunee, cap of invisibility
the kibisis, a leather pouch
in which to carry the gorgon's head
and winged sandals so that he might fly.
They say he flew out so far
he came to the place
where the great Titan, Atlas, stood
whose punishment it was
to hold up the heavens.
And he called out to the sad giant.
But his voice was tin.
Medusa!
Medusa the gorgon! How can I find her?
Is it a man?
All sounds are small.
You make such a noise about your destiny.
I am tired of bearing
the weight of heavens.
But if I let go,
the sky will fall on your heads.
I seek Medusa, the gorgon
whose look turns to stone.
The gorgon?
The gorgon is on a rock
at the edge of the world.
I dream she passes
and her stare turns me to stone.
No more weight.
Come closer.
Come closer! Come closer!
Was she waiting?
She was waiting for him, wasn't she?
-Yes, she was waiting.
-Stop it!
He lands on the island. Imagine!
Moving through statues, through people
the gorgon has frozen to stone.
And he's wearing his cap,
and he's clutching his sword
but none of those things seem to help him.
He's invisible but he's
sure she can see him.
She can smell him!
He's frightened, so frightened.
He's here, sisters. He's come.
The man who seeks us is here.
Wake, sisters, wake.
Why won't you show yourself, stranger?
Are you frightened?
Where are you? I can't see you.
He wants to look at her, wants to turn.
The voice tempting him to turn.
She can't see him,
but her voice can charm him.
He's invisible,
but if he looks at her, he's finished.
I like to be looked at.
And I like to look, too.
Where are you?
Look into my eyes.
There's a world in my eyes.
Where are you, stranger?
Why don't you look at me?
I like to be looked at.
Can you see me?
Medusa!
Sister!
Where is he? Kill him!
He did it! He did it!
Who are these other gorgons?
You never mentioned three gorgons.
If I told the whole story,
your head would burst.
There is no one story. There are
branches, rooms, like this place
rooms, corridors, dead ends.
What about the minutes
his mother spent waiting
the minutes running away,
what happened to them?
Or Diktys, his family broken on a whim?
Or Acrisius the king,
haunted, whose sleep is always fitful
who cannot forget the oracle?
Yes, the gorgon had sisters.
Yes, Perseus turned
the sad giant Atlas to stone.
-I can't tell you--
-Hang on, hang on.
He turned Atlas to stone?
He flew past Atlas
and took pity on the poor giant
showed him the sad eye
let him sleep the long sleep of a mountain.
Atlas! Atlas!
I did not forget.
And then home,
with the gorgon's head in his hands
his sword pointing the way in front of him.
Perhaps he's too late.
Perhaps his mother
has been taken to the palace.
Perhaps Polydektes has already married her.
Who's this?
Don't you know me, Polydektes?
Perseus!
Let her go.
I have brought you a gift for your wedding.
Would you look on it?
You've brought me
the gorgon's head, have you?
I have.
My friends
the boy has been to the end of the world
and come back with the Medusa's head.
I advise you to remove yourselves.
One look. Is this right, boy?
One look and we shall all be petrified!
That's right.
Dear, I think we'll show our true colours.
Is anyone else frightened of a story?
Of a child's nightmare?
The gorgon?
So weak!
Will no one stay with me?
He's lying!
It's a dream.
Come, boy.
Sit.
Eat with me.
I dreamed of dark.
I dreamed of light.
I dreamed I was a king.
I dreamed I was a god's son.
I dreamed your limbs grew heavy
and your blood turned to sand.
And I dreamed you cried out.
He turned him to stone. Good!
So the oracle was wrong?
What?
Acrisius.
The oracle said Perseus
would kill his grandfather
and he didn't.
I went to the oracle once.
Never ask.
You never hear what you hope for.
When Danae told Perseus about his birth,
about the oracle
Perseus felt compassion for Acrisius.
He decided to return to Argos
and promise his grandfather
he would do him no harm.
Good.
But what does it take
for an accident to happen?
Imagine, after standing
for 1,000 winters
this roof should suddenly give up
its spirit, fall on our head.
What?
What is that? Chance? Fate?
The god's sport? So it was
with Perseus and Acrisius.
The old king heard of Perseus' deeds
fled from Argos, hid from him
in the narrow lanes of Larissa.
Perseus travelled slowly
to Argos, stopping off on the way.
There was a contest at Larissa.
He stopped for it. Hurled the discus. Wild.
Past all the others.
Hurled it into the sky.
Watch out!
Acrisius, haunted, stood in the crowd.
The discus sought him out
with the strength of an oracle
found him, killed him.
So the oracle was true. That's terrible.
Yes, oracles are true.
Stories are true.
There are monsters at the end of the world.
There are looks that can kill,
and who has not been petrified with fear?
Ask Athene, warrior daughter of Zeus
weaver, maker of spiders.
She will tell you the things I cannot.
She will sing the praises
of Perseus the hero
father of the Argives, the gorgon slayer.